Bellevue College Transit Hub with Gondola
Currently most bus lines on the eastside are radiating from the Bellevue Transit Center. With the growth of Bellevue College and with the city's efforts to make the campus more transit friendly, Metro is planning to add more lines which serve the college. Why not make Bellevue College a secondary southeast hub and connect it to the Bellevue Transit Center via an ultra-high-frequency gondola?
While there are plans to build light rail from Issaquah to Eastgate, downtown Bellevue, and South Kirkland P&R, construction won't even start for another decade. With the current ST3 project cost increases, there are some doubts whether it will be affordable. So what could be done to improve transit in the meantime?
The Issaquah and Sammamish populations are rapidly growing. With over 10,000 students, Bellevue College is one of the largest schools in the state. Many local bus lines serve the college. That creates high travel demand mostly to downtown Bellevue and Seattle. Once the 2 Line crosses the lake, transit in the area is about to change. Buses from Issaquah will serve either Mercer Island or South Bellevue Station with some continuing to Bellevue Transit Center. They will stop at the Eastgate Freeway stop along the way. Either way they will connect to Link (2 Line) but it means that frequency is split between two directions (Seattle vs Bellevue). Some of the riders may also have a long walk from the freeway median stop to the college. If all Issaquah bus lines would connect to a Bellevue College hub and then continue to Mercer Island, Seattle riders could stay on any of those buses and Bellevue riders could use the gondola line to the Bellevue Transit Center. That may allow for a frequency of 5-10 minutes from Issaquah to Seattle and Bellevue and even higher frequency from Bellevue College to Bellevue Transit Center.
The Issaquah buses would need to exit the freeway briefly at the Eastgate flyer stop, follow the existing 142nd Pl SE HOV bridge, and loop around at the gondola station. Traffic on the HOV lanes from Issaquah to Mercer Island is usually not an issue. Students and faculty could take the gondola to Downtown Bellevue or a fast and frequent set of buses to Mercer Island (and Seattle). Bellevue College would become an even bigger transit hub than it is today, creating many other valuable connections. By connecting the two hubs with an ultra-high-frequency gondola line, any transfers between a line on one hub and a line on the other hub becomes much easier (such as between Issaquah and UW via: Issaquah to College - gondola - Bellevue TC to UW).
The gondola would generally follow the Lake Hills Connector straight to the Bellevue Transit Center. You would also want to add a stop on the east side of I-405 (Target, Trader Joe's, REI) which would create an easy way for pedestrians and cyclists to cross the I-405 car sewer", reach Eastrail, and give more people an opportunity to ride the gondola to the college. As gondolas arrive every ten seconds, students would get a high-frequency connection to Downtown Bellevue while riders arriving by bus could transfer quickly. With a travel time of about 12 minutes, the gondola is not only faster than a bus (271 takes 16 minutes at 8am) but also far more reliable and frequent (271 runs every 10-15 minutes mid-day). RapidRide K could just serve Kirkland to Bellevue instead of Bellevue College.
The Bellevue Transit Center station could be located on the northwest corner of the dog park right south of the Link station and connect to the Link mezzanine above to avoid the need for vertical conveyances.
The Bellevue College station could be located on the corner of Snoqualmie River Road / 142nd and Coal Creek Road on parking lot 14, an intersection soon to be upgraded for better bus circulation. It would require a bus loop for the Express buses to turn around and a new stop for other buses.
You could even extend the line to Bellevue Square along NE 6th St in Bellevue and over I-90 to Factoria/T-Mobile at the other end. This would provide transit riders from Factoria a safe way to cross I-90, reach the buses at the College and reach Bellevue. It would also allow for better routing in the area. A bus like the future Metro 240 would not detour to Eastgate (and the college) but instead go to South Bellevue (and Downtown Bellevue) using a more direct route. Riders heading to the college would transfer to the gondola.
Two strong transit hubs connected with a gondola line would not only improve the local transit experience in Bellevue but also strengthen regional connections along the I-90 and I-405 corridor.